


Worst Nightmare

by J_E_McCormick



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, enjoy, written to be painfu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 22:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1915617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_E_McCormick/pseuds/J_E_McCormick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Combeferre is, for a moment, not sure what’s going on. He’s stood outside. He frowns in confusion, looking around him.<br/>He can see a crowd, buzzing with agitation. He’s not entirely sure who most of the people are. He notices Enjolras is beside him, looking agitatedly ahead. Combeferre opens his mouth to ask what’s wrong, but as he follows Enjolras’ gaze, he can see exactly what is wrong.</p><p>Their apartment building is on fire. </p><p>...Where’s Courfeyrac?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worst Nightmare

Combeferre is, for a moment, not sure what’s going on. He’s stood outside. He frowns in confusion, looking around him.

He can see a crowd, buzzing with agitation. He’s not entirely sure who most of the people are. He notices Enjolras is beside him, looking agitatedly ahead. Combeferre opens his mouth to ask what’s wrong, but as he follows Enjolras’ gaze, he can see exactly what is wrong.

Their apartment building is on fire. It seems the worst effected is the second floor.

Second floor. His floor. That’s where his and Courfeyrac’s apartment is.

Where’s Courfeyrac?

Combeferre looks around desperately, but he can’t see him. There are no more people spilling out of the building; they’re all stood outside, staring at their apartment building, horror and fear and worry mingling on their faces. Combeferre suddenly becomes aware of the fact that he and Enjolras were just returning from a trip to the coffee shop – he’d left Courfeyrac inside to sleep for a little longer, promising his sleepy boyfriend pastries when he returned.

If Courfeyrac isn’t outside, that means he’s still inside. Combeferre’s chest seizes for a moment with the utter terror of the thought.

He’s running towards the apartment building before he’s entirely aware of it. He hears Enjolras yell after him, and thinks he might hear him following after him as he pushes open the door and charges towards the stairs. He chokes on a lungful of smoke and presses his sleeve over his mouth and nose to deal with the worse of it. His eyes sting and stream and his vision blurs but he presses onwards, fingers grasping out for the banister before he runs up the staircase.

He knows the route to his apartment easily. The fire hasn’t quite spread to this side of the building; he can see it licking at the very far end of one of the corridors, but the main problem here is the smoke. Combeferre knows what smoke inhalation can do, knows the damage and the risks of it. If Courfeyrac has inhaled too much of this smoke, he could be in serious trouble.

The apartment door is unlocked. Combeferre had left is so when he went out, and is glad he did. He can easily push open the door, stumbling into the apartment’s main room. He can hear Enjolras stumble in behind him, coughing. He wipes his eyes so that he can see.

Courfeyrac is crumpled on the floor, looking as if he was on his way out when he fell. If he’s passed out from the smoke inhalation, they need to get him out of here, quickly.

“Enjolras! Help me carry him.” He calls as he bends down to pick Courfeyrac up. Enjolras appears at his side and helps him, so that Courfeyrac is being supported between them. He’s completely limp, and doesn’t respond at all. For a moment the thought flashes through Combeferre’s mind that Courfeyrac is dead, and the idea punches a hole straight through him, almost physically forcing the air from his lungs. He tries to shake it off.

Courfeyrac will be fine. They’ll carry him outside, and the fire and ambulance service will be there, and they’ll treat him for severe smoke inhalation and he’ll go to the hospital for observation and recovery. Combeferre refuses to acknowledge the thought that he’s too late.

Enjolras is stumbling and coughing badly by the time they get out of the burning building. They collapse onto a patch of grass a small way away from it, and Combeferre lies Courfeyrac on his back and leans down to listen to his chest.

He’s not breathing and there’s no heartbeat.

A wave of panic is smothered by a clinical calmness. No heartbeat, no breathing. Resuscitation. CPR procedure. Compressions and then ventilation. Combeferre has been trained in this.

He starts on the compressions, firm and confident. He knows what he’s doing.

He won’t let Courfeyrac die.

Compressions. Ventilation. Compressions. Ventilation. Check for pulse and breathing. Continue.

He refuses to acknowledge that it isn’t working and that it likely won’t. Courfeyrac could have been dead far before Combeferre had come to his aid.

_He’s dead. He’s dead. Oh god, he’s dead._

No. Keep up compressions. Ventilation. Beside him Enjolras has stopped coughing as harshly, and Combeferre is aware of his piercing blue eyes being fixed on him. Somehow he knows that they’re watering, not just from the smoke, but the knowledge that one of his closest friends is dead.

“Combeferre-” Enjolras tries, voice rough from smoke and choked with tears.

“No.” Combeferre cuts him off, pressing his lips to Courfeyrac’s and pushing air into his lungs.

A hand on his shoulder is what alerts him to the arrival of the ambulance service. A medic is trying to instruct him to move away. Combeferre refuses to give up his CPR, refuses to let Courfeyrac out of his sight or his grasp. His arms are aching from the compressions. The medic tries again to make him back off. They mention defibrillation and Combeferre screams at them, because defibrillation is for correcting an erratic heartbeat, and _Courfeyrac doesn’t have a heartbeat._

He’s aware of tears streaming down his face and his breath hitching and catching through sobs that he doesn’t remember starting, before Courfeyrac is pulled away from his hands, and his whole world seems to end right there.

~~::.::~~

Combeferre wakes up suddenly, gasping and sobbing. He scrambles desperately upright, trying to make sense of where he is. Beside him, he feels movement.

“Com’ferre?” Courfeyrac murmurs, trying to force his eyes open past the heaviness of sleep. Combeferre stares at him for a moment – living, breathing, trying to struggle upright – and then collapses onto him, holding him desperately and sobbing into his chest. He can feel Courfeyrac’s surprise in the way he tenses for a moment, but quickly relaxes and starts rubbing a gentle, warm hand over Combeferre’s back, hushing and murmuring to him. “Hey, hey, shh. You’re alright. Shh, shh.”

It’s unusual for Combeferre to get so distressed and allow himself to become so worked up. But the nightmare had been so much worse than any others he’d experienced, so much more vivid and far more terrifying than anything abstract or strange. It takes a long while for him to calm down from his distraught sobs.

Courfeyrac is still soothing him, looking down at Combeferre when he starts to calm. “There you go. You alright?” He asks softly.

“Yeah, I- I just, had a nightmare…” Combeferre manages, still shaking a little.

“Must have been one hell of a nightmare.” Courfeyrac murmurs, but he doesn’t press, leaving it open to Combeferre whether he wants to share it or not.

“It was… It was really horrible, yeah.” Combeferre says. He decides not to elaborate right now.

“Well, you’re okay now.” Courfeyrac tells him. “You’re safe, and I’m right here.”

That gets a small smile out of Combeferre, and he leans up to kiss Courfeyrac softly. “Yes, you are. Thank you.”

“Hey, it’s no problem.” Courfeyrac smiles gently. He kisses Combeferre again. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Combeferre murmurs.

“You wanna go back to sleep, or shall we stay up a bit?”

“No, I think I’ll be alright to sleep.” Combeferre says. Courfeyrac smiles and settles back, gathering Combeferre into his arms. Combeferre rests his head against Courfeyrac’s chest, and falls asleep to the steady sound of his heartbeat.


End file.
